Christopher Dorner carjack victim: 'I saw compassion inside of him'

Rick Heltebrake with his dog Suni looks over the burned-out cabin where Christopher Dorner's remains were found after a police standoff Tuesday near Big Bear, Calif., Friday Feb. 15, 2013. Heltebrake had been carjacked by Dorner.

Rick Heltebrake escaped with his life Tuesday before Christopher Dorner was killed in a gun battle near Barton Flats that saw a high-profile manhunt come to a fiery end.

Dorner carjacked the 61-year-old Angelus Oaks resident's white 2008 Dodge Ram truck in an effort to evade police, but not before giving Heltebrake a moment to take his dog.

"I felt I saw a compassion inside of him," Heltebrake said. "He was concerned about my dog, it appeared. I'm not justifying anything else. That was one side of him I did see."

Heltebrake on Friday morning visited the ashes and rubble of the cabin where Dorner was killed.

He reflected on the confrontation with the camouflage-wearing gunman.

Heltebrake, a ranger at nearby Camp Tahquitz, was on Glass Road heading toward Highway 38 on Tuesday when he saw something out of the corner of his eye, coming out of the trees.

"It was clearly Christopher Dorner coming at me with a gun pointed at me" he said. "I could see a vehicle crashed in the snow behind him."

Heltebrake put his truck in park and put his hands up.

Dorner calmly instructed the driver what to do next. Heltebrake said it felt more like a business transaction than a carjacking.

"I don't wanna hurt you - just get out and start walking up the road and take your dog," Dorner told him.

Heltebrake grabbed his 3-year-old Dalmatian, Suni, and left.

Though the fate of the $1.2 million reward offered by Los Angeles and several donors for Dorner's capture remains unknown, Heltebrake said he thinks he deserves a portion of it because his phone call led to the end of the manhunt.

He says the couple held hostage by Dorner in Big Bear Lake should also receive a cut.

"If they were to back out of this reward and not pay it out to deserving people and claim a technicality in the language, or something like that, maybe there was some justification to some of the complaints Dorner was making," Heltebrake said.